Middle East Tourism: Roundup From the First Half of 2024

This earnings season, global travel leaders have agreed that the industry is in a slowdown. An exception to that, however, has been the Middle East, which bosses like Accor’s Sebastien Bazin noted was the operator’s best-performing region in the second quarter.

Mounting regional tensions could undo the Middle East’s growth in travel, but for the first half of 2024, performance was strong.

Here’s a look at the half-year tourism numbers for some of the region’s biggest tourism destinations.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia saw a combined 60 million international and domestic tourists in the first six months of the year. The kingdom did not share the split between international and domestic numbers.

Tourists in the period contributed $38.1 billion in expenditure during the first half of 2024.

Closed off to international tourism up until 2019, Saudi Arabia targets 150 million tourists by the end of the decade, 70 million of those coming from overseas. The country also wants tourism to become its second largest industry behind oil.

Dubai

Dubai continued its upward trajectory in tourism, recording 9.31 million international overnight visitors from January to June 2024. This marks a 9% increase compared to the 8.55 million arrivals in the same period in 2023, according to data from the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET).

Visitor statistics breakdown:

• GCC and MENA Markets: 26% of total visitors, with 1.27 million (14%) from GCC and 1.09 million (12%) from MENA
• Western Europe: 20% share, totaling 1.89 million visitors
• South Asia: 1.62 million visitors (17%)
• CIS and Eastern Europe: 1.37 million visitors (15%)
• North-East and South-East Asia: 10% share (896,000 visitors), driven by recovery from China
• Americas: 617,000 visitors (7%)
• Africa: 404,000 visitors (4%)
• Australasia: 154,000 visitors (2%)

Qatar

Qatar saw 2.63 million international tourists in the first half of 2024, 28% higher than the same period in 2023.

Saudi Arabia continued to be the top contributor to international arrivals with 755,000 visitors – 29% of total visitors coming in by June of 2024.

The remaining top 10 visitor markets were India (8%), Bahrain (5%), UK (4%), Kuwait (4%), Oman (4%), Germany (4%), USA (3%), UAE (3%), Italy (2%).

Egypt

Egypt brought in 7.069 million tourists in the first half of 2024, surpassing the previous record of 7.062 million set in the same period of 2023.

Key figures:

• Tourist Nights: 70.2 million, up from 67.6 million in 2023 and 65.7 million in 2010
• Tourism Revenue: $6.6 billion, a 5% increase from $6.3 billion in 2023, and an 18% growth from $5.6 billion in 2010
• 2028 Target: Aiming for 30 million tourists

Turkey

Turkey had a 13.9% annual increase in visitor numbers, reaching 26.1 million in the first half of 2024. Tourism revenues during the same period rose by 9.3% to $23.7 billion.

Key figures:

• Visitor Growth:
  • Russia: 3% increase to 2.7 million visitors
  • Germany: Over 9% growth to more than 2.5 million visitors
  • United Kingdom: 19% rise with nearly 1.8 million visitors
• China: 111% growth, reaching 187,000 visitors
• Japan: 96% increase with over 56,000 visitors

Turkey remains committed to its ambitious year-end target of 60 million visitors and $60 billion in tourism revenues.